a happy punch and taper!

By Anonymous · June 20, 2008

My love of piercings started when I found out about them; first, I got my ears pierced at Sacred Heart when I was 12, ear stretching since I was 13 (they're now 7/8ths of an inch) my septum when I was 14, my sternum when I was sixteen (almost 17) and then a couple more ear piercings since then. I had been dabbling in the idea of getting a cleavage/sternum piercing since I was about 15, but I never actually expected to get it.

My friend Dingo had only had his ears pierced before and stretched to about an 8 gauge but he took them out because they were very crooked. I convinced him to get his first real piercing, a little nostril stud which was really cute. After he went, his adrenaline rush and instant love of body modifications made me want to add to the piercings I had already.

I saved up some money to get the piercing done and then one day out of the blue decided that that was that and I was getting it done. I got out of school at 11:30 and headed downtown, got a falafel and browsed around while I waited for a couple of my friends to show up to hold my hand while I got it done.

There was a new piercing/tattoo place that just opened up called The Fall. My friend Allison suggested I go to because she got her microdermals done there by a guy named Russ Fox and they turned out fantastic. I went in and asked if there was a guy named Russ working, they said no, but there was another piercer, Quinn.

At this point I'd be damned to wait any longer to get it done (I can be kind of impatient) and said, hey, let's do it.

I sat and meditated in the shop for awhile while we waited for Quinn to be finished doing something or other in his studio.

When he came down, they then informed me that they didn't do surface piercings with a needle, they used a newer, different method called punch and tapering. It consists of dermal punching two holes and then tapering between the layers of skin. As opposed to the 70% rejection rate of a surface piercing, the punch and taper method is only 30% rejection rate. The punching and tapering was a longer process, so I was a little hesitant at first but then I just started to get REALLY EXCITED!!

We went up the stairs into the room and he talked me through the process. Then I told him where I wanted it  not too far up my chest, but not between my breasts either. If it was too low my chest would constantly be crushing the piercing and it would be NO GOOD! Then, he told me to spread my arms out like I was flying. Then he put his finger between my breasts and told me to put my hands on the side of his head. It was a little comedic to me, but it was just so he would be able to tell if my muscles would be closing on the piercing. All systems were good to go, so he took out a toothpick and poured out a little bit of gentian violet and marked my chest up with two horizontal lines and one vertical. It looked good to me so I laid down on the table.

Then he washed his hands and donned some gloves and unpackaged the first dermal punch. He told me to take a deep breath and then there was a piercing, twisting pain in my chest. Then he unpackaged the second punch. The same pain, but it hurt a lot more and started to bleed a lot. The friends that were watching told me there was blood everywhere and it was gushing. I'm glad I wasn't able to see it. Then he took out the taper. The tapering between the layers of skin was the worst part. It was a dull aching pressure kind of pain. Half way through he had to stop because the second hole started bleeding a lot again. By this point I was like, Oh my god! Fuck! FUCK! Finally, he pushed it though. Then in went the jewellery. It was probably the least painful part of the entire 15-20 minute process.

I got up and checked it out and man did I ever have an adrenaline buzz! It was so beautiful and perfectly placed. The surface bars they use are handcrafted so I think there was a little discrepancy in it that makes the top disc sit slightly tilted but the piercing itself is completely straight.

I've gotten lots of questions and compliments and comments of disgust about it, like, did you glue two discs to your chest? Is that a piercing? That's so gross! I think it's infected! How does that work? Isn't it infected? Why would you do that to yourself? That's so cool! But that's not even the half of it.

There haven't been any problems with the healing process since I had it done. I've been using spectrogel and sea salt soaks to clean it. Last week, it got caught in a seatbelt and then the bottom hole has been looking a little red and a little irritated but it hasn't been a problem. There's no pain in my chest, no discharge, no nothing! I couldn't be happier with it!

Since it was done, I've suggested to a bunch of friends that they go to The Fall to get pierced, and they got stuff done by Russ and they love it. I DEFINITELY recommend going to The Fall for any piercings you want to get no matter who is in!

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